Archive for the 'Tim Mcgraw' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

But the ambitious 47-year-old superstar has put out a trio of new albums over the past three years as well as starring in several feature films, including “The Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock in 2009 and “Country Strong” alongside Gwyneth Paltrow just a year later. He’s also the loving and doting husband of fellow country star Faith Hill and the father of the pair’s three pre-teen and teenage daughters.

In what little downtime he has, McGraw is thinking of new sounds to experiment with once he’s in the studio. On the forthcoming release, “Sundown Heaven Town” – his 13th full-length recording, due Sept. 16 – the seasoned performer says he was happy to push the envelope a bit and further blur genre lines.

“I like when artists are artists,” he says during a recent phone interview, before bringing his “Sundown Heaven Town” tour to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on Sunday with openers Kip Moore and “The Voice” Season 3 winner Cassadee Pope. “The great thing about country music is that you can really have the best of both worlds. You can do something that pushes our genre forward and you can have that real homespun quality to it, too.”

Here's further proof of the enduring power of catchy mainstream pop-rock: Colorado group OneRepublic and Irish band the Script will make almost a clean sweep of Southern California’s largest outdoor venues in June.

Back in December, when the first two nearby dates were announced, it already seemed like a possibly over-ambitious outing, as Ryan Tedder & Co.’s headlining outing had booked a June 5 debut at the Hollywood Bowl ($29.50-$87.50) along with a June 2 stop at equally sprawling Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Chula Vista ($26-$95).

Late last week, however, OneRepublic added another batch of dates to its North American trek – including a June 3 appearance at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. Tickets, $29.50-$75, go on sale Friday, Feb. 14, at 10 a.m.

Tim McGraw: His return to O.C., May 18 at Verizon with Cassadee Pope opening, shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans; it was initially offered as part of Live Nation’s still-available Country Megaticket promotion. Remaining seats and lawn spots, though, go on sale Friday at 10 a.m., $21-$61.

Some of the biggest names in country music will visit outdoor venues in Southern California this year, with new tours from Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and more all on tap this spring and summer as part of Live Nation's annual Country Megaticket.

Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater is getting the lion's share of performances, including McGraw with Cassadee Pope on May 18, Lady Antebellum and David Nail on June 14, Paisley with Randy Houser, Leah Turner and Charlie Worsham on July 12, Lambert on July 10, and Keith Urban with Jerrod Niemann and Brett Eldredge on Sept. 5. A "superstar artist" yet to be announced will headline there on Sept. 26.

Toby Keith will come to San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore with an as-yet-unnamed opening act on May 30, while Rascal Flatts and Sheryl Crow will join forces for a show at that location on Aug. 16, with Gloriana opening.

Tickets aren’t on sale for individual shows, but Live Nation is including them in its usual Country Megaticket promotion.

With last year’s sprawling 20-song set Privateering, veteran guitarist and singer-songwriter Mark Knopfler not only issued the first double-album of new material in his nearly four-decade career, he also surpassed himself: He has now put out more studio efforts as a solo act than he did as leader of epic-inclined rock band Dire Straits.

That wealth of recent material means he will have a lot to draw from when he returns to California for a string of dates, including Oct. 23 at the Long Beach Terrace Theater, $42-$82, and Oct. 26 at the Wiltern (a seated show), $55.50-$156.

Both of those go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Also see him Oct. 25 at the Pearl Concert Theater in Las Vegas, $66-$146, on sale Monday; and Oct. 27 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, $65.50-$129.50, on sale Aug. 25.

The Brian Setzer Orchestra: They can’t very well continue their holiday tradition at Gibson Amphtheatre – that place, closing next month, will probably be demolished by the time December gets here. So the guitar whiz and his ensemble are moving their 10th annual Christmas Rocks show to the Dolby Theatre (formerly the Kodak) at Hollywood & Highland on Dec. 21, $55.75-$95.75, on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Tim McGraw had already performed for about an hour Saturday night before he focused on material from his latest album, Two Lanes of Freedom, at San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino County.

As with most veteran artists, his switch to new stuff wasn't initially met with the same cheers that accompany classic hits. Yet it was during this stretch that the Louisiana native displayed what has helped make him such a durable entertainer over the past 20 years.

From the spirited, dance-minded "Mexicoma" to the tender ballad "Nashville Without You," McGraw and his terrific, longtime seven-member band the Dancehall Doctors showcased an effortless ability to take audiences (like this party-geared one) through a vast range of emotional terrain.

When he got to his next song, "Friend of a Friend," a symphonic opening courtesy of the keyboards segued into a tender tale of cheating set against a backdrop of coffee shops and yoga sessions, rather than the honky-tonk days of old.

Alabama Shakes: Brittany Howard and the rest of this widely acclaimed and Grammy-nominated new rock ’n’ soul group will be missed at Coachella, where they could have had a huge breakout turn behind last year's startling album Boys & Girls. Instead, they have booked two nights, July 17-18, at the Hollywood Palladium. Bet they sell out in a hurry when they go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Price: $35.

Phish: The beloved jam band announced its summer tour plans this week – and it includes a return trip to the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 5, after a three-night stand (Aug. 2-4) at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Stay tuned for on-sale info.

Tim McGraw: We already knew Mr. Faith Hill was on his way back to Southern California to headline San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore on June 8. It previously had been offered as part of Live Nation’s still-available Country Megaticket, along with three other shows: Luke Bryan with Thompson Square at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on Aug. 10, Brad Paisley with Chris Young at San Manuel on Aug. 24 and Rascal Flatts with the Band Perry at Verizon on Sept. 14.

•Country Megaticket: Got a spare $600 and planning on seeing country stars galore this year? Your deal of deals just dropped via this four-show package, enabling you to buy ahead of each event's general on-sale date.

What do you get? Two shows at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Luke Bryan on Aug. 10 and Rascal Flatts on Sept. 14, as well as two more at San Manuel Amphitheater: Tim McGraw on June 8 (his 12th album Two Lanes of Freedom arrives next week) and Brad Paisley on Aug. 24 (his 9th, Wheelhouse, spins in April).

Six bills too steep? How about lawn for $125? Parking is included in either assortment. Country Megatickets become available Friday at 10 a.m., though pre-sales for Citi members and more start Wednesday.

• The Hollywood Bowl: Initial details of the venerable venue's 92nd season were revealed Tuesday morning, and as always there are several gems in the schedule, this time including ...

•Doheny Blues Festival: The lineup for the 16th annual weekend gathering, May 18-19 at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, has fallen into place. Topping the roster is the new pairing of jam-rocker Ben Harper and blues harmonica great Charlie Musselwhite (their Stax album Get Up! arrives next week), along with the first fest appearance from jaw-dropping virtuoso Joe Bonamassa in three years.

Also in the mix are several Doheny Blues veterans: the uplifting pedal-steel soul of Robert Randolph & the Family Band, belters Marcia Ball and Shemekia Copeland, guitarists Sonny Landreth and Cindy Cashdollar, Zydeco star Terrance Simien, the return of the James Hunter Six and more. Only weekend passes are currently on sale, $100 for general admission, $225 for VIP. More acts are expected to be announced through March.

• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: As you might have noticed when the 2013 inductees were revealed, the HoF is finally bringing its 28th annual ceremony west and opening it up to the public, April 18 at Nokia Theatre. Tickets, $75-$750, are on sale now for American Express card-holders. Hall of Fame and Museum and fan club sales start Jan. 28, with the general on-sale starting Feb. 1. The ceremony airs a month later on HBO.

Who will induct whom? John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr. will play in tribute to Albert King, with Mayer giving the speech. Don Henley will salute Randy Newman. Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Hudson will perform in honor of Donna Summer. And Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters will celebrate the awesomeness of Rush. No word who will give praise to Public Enemy, Heart, Lou Adler or Quincy Jones.

Most everywhere else in America – the cradle of the South, the Midwest plains, deep in the heart of Texas – country shows like the one that took over the Big A on Saturday routinely sell out stadiums on the strength of a single headliner, plus a strong supporting act or two.

Not so in California, where superstars like Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, two of Nashville's most bankable names, have only been able to reach arena level on their own in the past decade. Truly enormous throngs of 50,000-plus people are drawn to Stagecoach, the Indio festival that five years after launching is among the biggest such attractions nationwide, further removing the myth that Cali folks just aren't country.

That increasingly popular event clearly paved the way for something as monumental as an Anaheim stop on the Brothers of the Sun Tour, a massive-scale endeavor reteaming old friends Chesney and McGraw. But the six-hour sprawl, which kicked off in late afternoon with sharp but short sets from Jake Owen and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, succeeded more than just at the box office. This show was symbolic: Never again let it be said that what works in the Heartland won't always cut it on the West Coast.

Granted, stadium events come with more disadvantages than perks. Traffic snarls, thick parking congestion, endless and poorly controlled lines for the bathrooms (and beer), clueless ushers and guards ill-prepared for widely (and often wildly) drunken concert crowds – that's enough to deter even ardent fans, never mind how rotten and uncontrollably reverberating the sound can get in such an enormous space.

We first mentioned this show back in November, so it merits a reminder: the Angel Stadium stop on Kenny Chesney&Tim McGraw's Brothers of the Sun Tour, slated for July 14, goes on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

Tickets to see the country superstars, teamed up for the first time in more than a decade, start at $25 for the upper decks, shift to $59.50 and $99.50 as you get closer to the field, and top out at $135 and $225 for choicest seats. How much extra will you pay in Ticketmaster service charges? Anywhere from $7.29 on the low end to more than $20 per ticket for the best spots.

As previously mentioned, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals and Jake Owen open all dates on the outing, which so far has only this mammoth event on its Southwestern itinerary -- the next closest gig is still Denver's Mile High Stadium on July 21. I still suspect that additional dates at other locations might be added if ticket demand is as high as promoters anticipate.

Pre-sales for American Express card-holders are ongoing through Friday at 10 p.m., though starting Saturday such buyers will be able to purchase tickets for one of four Kenny Chesney VIP packages, all of which include access to a Pre-Game Tailgate Party, featuring his favorite foods and drinks. Those run from $439 to $719 per person.